scholarly journals Record of the Emerald Ash Borer (Agrilus planipennis) in Ukraine is Confirmed

Author(s):  
Alexander N. Drogvalenko ◽  
Marina J. Orlova-Bienkowskaja ◽  
Andrzej O. Bieńkowski

Agrilus planipennis is a devastating invasive pest of ash trees. This wood-boring insect native to Asia and established in European Russia about 20 years ago poses a serious threat to ash trees all over Europe. In 2019 we first detected Agrilus planipennis in Ukraine. More than 20 larvae have been collected from under the bark of Fraxinus pennsylvanica trees on 5 September 2019 in Markivka District of Luhansk Region. Coordinates of the localities of collection: 49.614991 N, 39.559743 E; 49.614160 N, 39.572402 E and 49.597043 N, 39.561811 E. The photos of damaged trees with larval galleries, exit holes and larvae are presented. There is no doubt that the pest is established in Ukraine. This fact is important for development of quarantine protocols to prevent or at least slow the further spread of this invasive pest in Europe.

Insects ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 338 ◽  
Author(s):  
Drogvalenko ◽  
Orlova-Bienkowskaja ◽  
Bieńkowski

Agrilus planipennis (Coleoptera: Buprestidae) is a devastating invasive pest of ash trees. This wood-boring insect is native to Asia and established in European Russia about 20 years ago. It severely damages Fraxinus pennsylvanica plantations and quickly spreads. In 2019 we first detected A. planipennis in Ukraine. More than 20 larvae were collected from under the bark of F. pennsylvanica trees on 5 September 2019 in the Markivka District of the Luhansk Region. The coordinates of the localities of collection were 49.614991 N, 39.559743 E; 49.614160 N, 39.572402 E; and 49.597043 N, 39.561811 E. The photos of the damaged trees with larval galleries, exit holes and larvae are presented. It indicates that A. planipennis is established in the east of Ukraine. This fact is important for development of quarantine protocols to prevent or at least slow the further spread of this invasive pest in Europe.


Forests ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 691
Author(s):  
Mark G. Volkovitsh ◽  
Andrzej O. Bieńkowski ◽  
Marina J. Orlova-Bienkowskaja

Emerald ash borer (EAB), Agrilus planipennis, native to East Asia, is an invasive pest of ash in North America and European Russia. This quarantine species is a threat to ash trees all over Europe. Survey in ten provinces of European Russia in 2019–2020 showed that EAB had spread faster and farther than was previously thought. The new infested sites were first detected in St. Petersburg (110–120 km from the EU border: Estonia, Finland) and Astrakhan Province (50 km from the Kazakhstan border). The current range of EAB in Europe includes Luhansk Province of Ukraine and 18 provinces of Russia: Astrakhan, Belgorod, Bryansk, Kaluga, Kursk, Lipetsk, Moscow, Orel, Ryazan, Smolensk, St. Petersburg, Tambov, Tula, Tver, Vladimir, Volgograd, Voronezh, and Yaroslavl. Within these, only seven quarantine phytosanitary zones in five provinces are declared by the National Plant Protection Organization of Russia. EAB was not found in the regions along the Middle Volga: Mari El, Chuvash and Tatarstan republics, Nizhny Novgorod, Samara and Saratov provinces. The infested sites in St. Petersburg and in the Lower Volga basin are range enclaves separated from the core invasion range by 470 and 370 km, correspondingly. It is possible that new enclaves can appear in the cities of Eastern Europe and Kazakhstan far from the current known range. All previously known infestations in European Russia were in green ash (Fraxinus pennsylvanica), which was introduced from North America, and individual trees of European ash (F. excelsior). A first confirmed case of mass decline of several thousand of EAB-infested European ash trees in Moscow province is provided. Therefore, there is no more doubt that under certain conditions EAB can seriously damage native ash trees in European forests.


2020 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 489-495 ◽  
Author(s):  
E A Ellison ◽  
D L Peterson ◽  
D Cipollini

Abstract Emerald ash borer (EAB, Agrilus planipennis Fairmaire [Coleoptera: Buprestidae]) is a wood boring beetle that is an invasive pest of ash trees (Fraxinus spp.) in North America. In 2014, it was reported that EAB had infested white fringetree (Chionanthus virginicus L. [Lamiales: Oleaceae]) in Ohio and was since found to have infested this species across its invasive range. In 2018, we reexamined 166 white fringetrees in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and Pennsylvania that had been previously examined for EAB attack in 2015 to determine their fate. We assessed tree health and EAB infestation in each tree, assigned an infestation status of newly, continuously, not reinfested, or never infested, and compared the trees’ current status to their 2015 status. This assessment was done to determine whether their health and infestation status had changed through the EAB invasion wave. We found that attack rates declined: 26% of trees were infested in 2015 whereas only 13% were in 2018, likely coinciding with declining beetle populations in the area. Overall tree health improved for trees that were not reinfested by EAB after a record of attack in 2015, suggesting that they can survive and recover from EAB attack. Conversely, health declined for newly and continuously infested trees, indicating that they became stressed from EAB attack. Although the majority of the trees survived the invasion wave, several were removed from various sites due to EAB attack suggesting that white fringetree varies in its resistance and tolerance to attack. As beetle populations continue to expand geographically, infestation rates will likely increase and health of white fringetrees will decrease with the EAB attack wave, especially as EAB reaches denser populations of fringetrees.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrzej Bieńkowski ◽  
Marina Orlova-Bienkowskaja

Woolly ash aphid or ash leaf curl aphid Prociphilus fraxinifolii (Riley, 1879) is an alien invasive pest of ash trees native to North America. After its first record in Europe in 2003 in Hungary it has spread to the Ukraine, Serbia, Bulgaria, Great Britain, Spain, Poland and Germany. In 2016 P. fraxinifolii was firstly recorded at the southwestern border of Russia. Now Prociphilus fraxinifolii is firstly recorded in the center of European Russia, namely in Moscow Region, which is more than 700 km far from all other known localities of the species. In September 2017 five groups of ash trees (Fraxinus pennsylvanica) with colonies of Prociphilus fraxinifolii were found in Moscow Region. The example of Prociphilus fraxinifolii shows that alien pest insects can spread in Europe very quickly. Now Moscow region is the only regions of Europe, where the expanding range of Prociphilus fraxinifolii has overlapped with expanding ranges of other invasive alien species established in Europe in the last 20 years and severely damaging ash trees: ash dieback fungus Hymenoscyphus fraxineus Baral et al., 2014 (Ascomycota) and emerald ash borer Agrilus planipennis Fairmaire, 1888 (Coleoptera: Buprestidae).


2014 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 286-297 ◽  
Author(s):  
Constance E. Hausman ◽  
Michelle M. Bertke ◽  
John F. Jaeger ◽  
Oscar J. Rocha

The USA is experiencing a prolific invasion of the wood-boring emerald ash borer,Agrilus planipennis. Native to Asia, this beetle completes its life cycle on ash trees and results in nearly complete mortality of all infested trees. In the present study, we examined the levels of genetic diversity and differentiation among eight populations ofFraxinus pennsylvanica(green ash) using five polymorphic microsatellite loci. Genetic information was used to design guidelines for the establishment of a seed collection sampling strategy to conserve the genetic diversity of ash trees. We found high levels of genetic diversity, as indicated by the allelic richness, both across the populations (16.4 ± 5.18 alleles per locus) and within them (8.03 ± 1.21 alleles per locus). The expected and observed heterozygosity was also high (0.805 ± 0.38 and 0.908 ± 0.04, respectively), and there was moderate genetic differentiation among the populations (FST= 0.083) with members of these eight populations grouped into three distinct clusters. We examined the relationship between the number of individuals sampled and the number of alleles captured in a random sample taken from a population of 10,000 individuals. Only sample sizes of 100 individuals captured most of the alleles (average = 78.74 alleles), but only seven of 50 samples effectively captured all the 82 alleles. Smaller samples did not capture all alleles. A probabilistic model was used to determine an optimal sampling strategy, and it was concluded that a collection of 200 seeds from each of five mother trees would have the highest likelihood of capturing all alleles in a population.


2011 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 79-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
Toby R. Petrice ◽  
Robert A. Haack

Abstract Efforts to eradicate or slow the spread of emerald ash borer (EAB) (Agrilus planipennis Fairmaire [Coleoptera: Buprestidae]) include cutting infested and nearby uninfested ash (Fraxinus spp.) trees. However, ash trees readily sprout after they have been cut, providing potential host material for EAB. In 2004–2005, we conducted studies to determine how different cutting times (midspring, late spring, and late summer), different cutting heights (0–5, 10–15, and 20–25 cm above the ground), and triclopyr (44% active ingredient) stump treatment of green ash (Fraxinus pennsylvanica Marsh.) trees affected subsequent stump sprouting and colonization by EAB. We also cut white ash (Fraxinus americana L.) and black ash (Fraxinus nigra Marsh.) trees 20–25 cm above the ground in late spring. Some stumps of each ash species tested sprouted and were colonized by EAB. All green ash stumps treated with triclopyr died and were not colonized by EAB. Stump sprouting was significantly lower for stumps cut in late spring compared with stumps cut in midspring or late summer. Stump sprouting did not vary significantly among cutting heights. None of the green ash stumps cut in midspring or cut 0–5 cm above the ground were colonized by EAB; however, the frequency of stump colonization by EAB did not vary significantly among cutting times or cutting heights.


2015 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriel Hughes ◽  
Clifford Sadof ◽  
Matthew Ginzel

Aggressive insects like the emerald ash borer [Agrilus planipennis (Fairmaire)] (EAB) increasingly threaten the health of the urban forest. Early detection of exotic wood-boring pests is critical for rapid response efforts, and allows for effective management while populations are relatively low. During street tree inventories, arborists record subjective rankings of tree condition and pest incidence; however, the extent of insect attack is rarely quantified. Moreover, it is unknown how the assessment of tree vigor provided by city foresters during these inventories relates to the likelihood of wood-borer infestation. In this study, researchers developed a borer-specific tree vigor assessment scheme to rapidly evaluate street trees, and to identify when EAB populations begin to grow exponentially based on the health of the forest. This scheme incorporates common indicators of EAB attack, including canopy thinning and epicormic sprouts, as well as attack by common native wood-boring insects. This scheme was used to track the health of ash trees from 2010 to 2013 in one urban forest with advanced symptoms of EAB decline and one without (Indianapolis and Lafayette, Indiana, U.S., respectively). Trees declined more rapidly in Indianapolis where emergence holes from native borers were positively correlated with EAB in infested areas. Over the course of the study, first detections of EAB occurred on progressively weaker trees at both sites, suggesting that early detection of incipient EAB populations can be improved by surveying apparently healthy trees.


2007 ◽  
Vol 33 (5) ◽  
pp. 338-349
Author(s):  
Andrea Anulewicz ◽  
Deborah McCullough ◽  
David Cappaert

Emerald ash borer (Agrilus planipennis Fairmaire) (Coleoptera: Buprestidae), a phloem-feeding insect native to Asia, was identified in 2002 as the cause of widespread ash (Fraxinus) mortality in southeast Michigan, U.S. and Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Little information about A. planipennis is available from its native range and it was not known whether this invasive pest would exhibit a preference for a particular North American ash species. We monitored A. planipennis density and canopy condition on green ash (F. pennsylvanica) and white ash (F. americana) street trees in four neighborhoods and on white and blue ash (F. quadrangulata) trees in two woodlots in southeast Michigan. Green ash street trees had significantly more canopy dieback and higher A. planipennis densities than white ash trees growing in the same neighborhood. Density increased by two- to fourfold in both species over a 3-year period. Canopy dieback increased linearly from 2002 to 2005 as A. planipennis density increased (R 2= 0.70). In each of the woodlots, A. planipennis densities were significantly higher on white ash trees than blue ash trees. Woodpecker predation occurred in all sites and accounted for 35% of the A. planipennis that developed on trees we surveyed. Results indicate that surveys for A. planipennis detection in areas with multiple ash species should focus on the relatively preferred species.


Forests ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (11) ◽  
pp. 1509
Author(s):  
Nickolas N. Rajtar ◽  
Benjamin W. Held ◽  
Robert A. Blanchette

The emerald ash borer (EAB, Agrilus planipennis) is a devastating invasive pest that has killed millions of ash trees in the United States and Canada. EAB was discovered in the US in 2002 and first reported in Minnesota in 2009. It attacks ash trees that are native to the United States, including Fraxinus americana (white ash), F. nigra (black ash) and F. pennsylvanica (green ash). It also attacks Chionanthus virginicus (white fringe tree). Seven species of fungi isolated and identified only from EAB-infested trees in a previous study as having the potential to cause cankers were used to test their pathogenicity in F. americana (white ash). The fungi used were Cytospora pruinosa, Diplodia mutila, Diplodia seriata, Paraconiothyrium brasiliense, Phaeoacremonium minimum, Phaeoacremonium scolyti, and Thyronectria aurigera. Two field experiments that used F. americana used two inoculation methods: woodchip and agar plug inoculations. Results indicated that all of the fungi tested caused cankers in varying amounts, as compared to the controls. The largest cankers were caused by D. mutila (270 mm2), C. pruinosa (169 mm2), and D. seriata (69 mm2). All fungi except for T. aurigera were re-isolated and sequenced to confirm Kochs’ postulates. Canker-causing fungi found in association with EAB galleries have the potential to contribute to tree dieback and mortality.


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